


Greensleeves

by sorei_yu



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Slow Burn, Violence, a kind of mystical creature au, i'll add more tags as i go along, the rating is for violence not for anything sexual
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-14 10:57:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10535049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorei_yu/pseuds/sorei_yu
Summary: In which Viktor and Yuuri are both not quite human (and humans are less human than those that aren't).





	1. Prelude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prelude:  
> A musical introduction to subsequent movements during the Baroque era (1600's/17th century). It can also be a movement in its own right, which was more common in the Romantic era (mid-1700s/18th century)

The forest was quiet.

The leaves rustled softly with the breeze. Small animals flitted here and there through the foliage above and underfoot, trying to avoid detection. A branch creaked when a bird settled on it, shaking off a loose leaf that fluttered slowly to the ground. A crack rang through the forest as a boar snapped a fallen branch with its weight, tinier cracks following as its piglets scrambled to keep up.

And yet, with all these sounds that filled the air, the forest was quiet.

Viktor plucked a berry from a nearby bush, munching on it. The sunlight that managed to penetrate through the canopy warmed his body, and he closed his eyes for just a few seconds, savouring the feeling. He was surprisingly relaxed even though he knew he was being followed. In fact, he’d been aware of it for at least three days now. It had started with light, quiet footsteps from a little ways behind him, but now he could actually catch it out of the corner of his eye, a shadow poking out every now and then from behind a tree. It was always only for a second though, and as soon as Viktor showed even the slightest sign of turning his head to get a better look, the shadow slunk away again.

Viktor opened his eyes and bent down to pluck more berries from the bush by his feet, gathering up a handful this time to snack on before he continued on his way. Sensitive as he was to his surroundings, he could tell the shadow following him wasn’t an enemy. On the contrary, it was a rather calming presence, almost like he had a companion with him as he made his way through the unfamiliar scenery.

His thoughts were about to flow to more pressing matters when he suddenly heard…

Nothing.

He halted in his tracks and muttered a curse. The ambient sounds that had surrounded him had disappeared while he’d been lost in his thoughts, and in its place silence deafened him. Even his stalker’s presence had disappeared, and for some reason that made him extra uneasy. He knew it was irrational, but it felt like he’d been abandoned. He narrowed his eyes as he looked around warily, his arm reaching to pull out the bow strapped to his back. Even as a dweller of the grasslands and not the forests, the signs were clear. Something dangerous was close.

He shifted, getting just a slight bit nervous. They had chosen a grand time to make their presence known. They had caught him in the middle of crossing a small clearing, and he berated himself for not having more sense. Generally, he’d do better fighting in an open space, but that was when he wasn’t also surrounded by trees blocking his view. It unnerved him, and he entertained the thought of running instead of holding his ground. It wouldn’t work, though. He would probably end up tripping on a tree root, and that would do nothing to help in his escape. He steeled himself and prepared to fight, praying that his enemies were just mere wolves that he could fight off with just a few well aimed kicks.

Of course, life wasn’t going to be that easy. He leaned off to the side as a badly made arrow whistled loudly through the air towards him, stabbing into the ground by his back feet. He squinted in the direction it had come from, silently firing his own arrow in return. He didn’t have much hope that he had hit his target. Though the sunlight pierced through in various places, the majority of his surroundings were still shrouded in shadow and if he did hit his attacker, there was no sound to indicate the fact. If this was going to be a long distance fight, though, they would never be able to bring him down. Not with arrows as badly made as this. He smirked as he stomped on the arrow embedded in the ground and snapped it in half. The useless thing wasn’t even worth picking up to fire back.

It seemed his attackers were also aware that their arrows and skills were mediocre in comparison to his. Silhouettes soon started appearing in between the shadows of the trees as they promptly gave up on taking him down from afar, and Viktor’s heart sank as he saw the number of enemies he was up against for the first time. _This is not going to end well_ , he thought grimly as he nocked another arrow in preparation. He was confident enough that he could still win, but he would definitely not come out unscathed. Not even the great Viktor Nikiforov could do that. He sighed as he worried about whether or not he would receive a scar from this as he eyed his surroundings, waiting for them to charge forward for the first strike. Apart from Viktor, the members of his tribe were always proud of their scars, openly displaying them as shows of their strength and the number of battles they had survived. Viktor, however, would rather his skin stay smooth and pretty, thanks. _(It was largely due to his vainness that his fighting skills were top notch. The only way to get out of receiving injuries was to be good enough to not receive any at all, obviously.)_

A yell from behind him made Viktor sigh as he tilted his head slightly so he could look behind him, not surprised to see a human clumsily charging towards him. He waited patiently for the idiot to get closer before tensing up his muscles and snapping his back legs outward, getting the human square in the abdomen.

“What’s the point of coming from behind me if you’re just going to yell and give yourself away?” Viktor mused, shaking his head and sighing at the man that lay on the ground clutching his stomach, groaning from the pain. “Come on, this is basic stuff.” The human probably wouldn’t be able to get back to his feet for the rest of this fight. A full powered kick from a horse’s back feet right in the guts wasn’t very fun, after all.

At the fall of their comrade, the other humans finally started to move. Viktor had counted about 30 of them from the silhouettes earlier, though there could still be more staying hidden in the shadows and waiting for their chance. That suspicion faded away as the fight continued, however. It seemed like the only attack strategy they had was to charge at him and pray. Their movements were clumsy compared to those of his kind, and their plan was a mess compared to what Viktor was used to from humans. He had no troubles dodging and kicking down a bunch of humans at once as they charged at him. After bucking off a human who had dared to try jumping on his back, he realised that most of them had small axes and knives instead of the swords and spears he was accustomed to seeing. Not to mention these people weren’t even wearing proper armour.

 _They aren’t centaur hunters,_ was the conclusion that Viktor drew as he reared up and kicked someone who was too close to his front for comfort. Maybe they were bandits or regular hunters whose ambush he had stupidly wandered into by accident. Maybe they had thought they’d be able to capture him and sell him off for some quick cash when they spotted him. He chuckled at the latter possibility. They were about to figure out that normal humans wouldn’t stand a chance against a centaur without prior training.

He couldn’t even be bothered to pull out his sword, settling with kicking and stomping them into the ground. He was sure he’d stepped on (and crushed) a good number of limbs as the pile of bodies surrounding him increased. It didn’t take long before the number of humans left standing had dwindled to just a handful, while Viktor barely felt like he’d worked up a sweat.

Viktor turned his gaze to the remainders, and he couldn’t stop a smirk from spreading on his face when he noticed them visibly flinch. He couldn’t blame them. He was half a meter taller than the tallest of them and standing right in the middle of a pile of their comrades’ bodies. It must be an intimidating sight for sure. He wondered if they’d realised he was making sure he aimed at places that wouldn’t kill. _(He left out the thought that, though alive, some of them would probably not be able to walk or use their arms as they had before.)_

“So, do you guys want to continue this, or can I be on my--” His sentence was interrupted by a loud bang, followed by a sear of pain at the side of his upper half’s ribs. His eyes widened as his gaze flew to the source of the noise that lay slightly behind what he had thought was the last of the humans. In the shadows knelt a single man, a metal contraption smoking at the tip. _A gun._ Viktor cursed as he felt the burning at his side get stronger with every breath, his hands flying to the wound, his legs starting to shake. _Why hadn’t they pulled that out earlier if they’d had it?_

A vague memory of his mentor cautioning him about guns just before he left came to mind. How the small metal things named ‘bullets’ were expensive and how guns were slow compared to the bow and how people would try their best not to use guns on centaurs unless they were really at their wits’ end.

_Shit. This is definitely going to scar._

Viktor struggled to stay on his feet, blood starting to stain the grass and bodies beneath him as he backed away from the ones moving towards him. His side was burning. He stumbled a little when his foot got caught on a body. The humans took that chance to edge forward faster. His mind was spinning as he struggled to regain his composure. _I’ve gone and done it now. Now they’re going to capture me and sell me as a slave and chop off my--_

Viktor held the thought when a black… _thing_ hurtled past and jumped, crashing down right on top of the closest human. It didn’t stop to rest, nimbly bounding past the stunned ones and going straight for the one with the gun. The human was panicking, his hands shaking and unable to steady his weapon to get a clean shot. The thing reared up right in front of the man and for a split second time seemed to stop before the creature’s front feet slammed down on the human’s shoulders. Viktor heard a nasty crack, and the human slumped to the ground, unmoving.

Viktor’s saviour didn’t waste any time, rushing up to him and grabbing his hand.

“We need to leave!” Viktor’s eyes couldn’t focus properly, and he wondered if he’d lost a bit too much blood. His saviour was a centaur like him, he could tell that much, but he’d never seen movements like those before in his entire life. They had been hypnotising, and--

“Quickly!!” The voice jerked him out of his thoughts with an urgent tug on his hand, and suddenly they were dashing through the trees. Viktor was running on pure adrenaline, the pain fading away to a dull ache as they dashed through the forest. His initial worry that he’d trip returned, though his fears were unfounded. It almost seemed as if the plants were making way for them, and Viktor let his mind go blank while he clutched tightly to the hand holding onto his own.

They couldn’t have been running for more than a minute, but Viktor felt like it’d been hours. His adrenaline rush was dying and the pain was coming back. He was starting to breathe too heavily, the air not getting to his lungs fast enough.

Then they came to an abrupt stop, and Viktor’s legs promptly gave out underneath him as the world went dark.

+++

Viktor stirred from someone’s hands on his wound, and though the hands felt gentle and barely applied any pressure at all he woke with a start. He instinctively kicked at the shadow that was bent over him, but before his legs even had a chance to make contact the shadow had jumped back. He could sense the nervousness from the other as it stood a short distance away, and he felt a slight twinge of disbelief. _I should be the one feeling nervous here. I’m the one lying on the floor with a bullet wound in my side._

“Um… G- Good morning?” the shadow offered quietly, shyly, as it took just a single step closer. Viktor rubbed the sleep from his eyes and wiggled a little so he was propping his upper body up with an arm.

“Ah, you shouldn’t do that, your wound might open up again...”

Viktor ignored the unnecessary worry and finally managed to take a good look at his saviour.

Viktor’s eyes widened. The centaur was gorgeous. His black hair was slightly tousled and he had a faint blush on his face that reached all the way up to his ears. A closer look at his body _(the animal one)_ and Viktor realised that rather than black as he had initially thought, he was closer to a really dark brown, though it faded to a slightly lighter shade towards his legs. It was then that Viktor realised why he’d been so nimble.

“You’re a deer,” he couldn’t help voicing his realisation, and the deer fidgeted with his hands a little and nodded. “I’ve never seen a deer centaur before.”

“... I’ve never seen a horse centaur with arms before,” the deer replied softly. Viktor’s heart twinged painfully in his chest at that remark, but he firmly ignored it. White spots dotted the deer’s back _(his butt and tiny black tail were cute too)_ , and when Viktor lifted his gaze back to the centaur’s face, he noticed two horn stumps poking out from the top of his head.

“What’s your name?” he asked, his blue eyes sparkling.

“Um…” the deer frowned, going quiet for a bit, and if Viktor didn’t know better he’d have thought his companion had forgotten his own name. “I’m Yuuri. Yuuri Katsuki.”

_… Yuuri. What a pretty name._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still working on my other fic! I've just been super busy with con prep and the only reason I ended up working on this was because I was super excited for it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> (Thanks to my friend Geraldine for the series title!)


	2. Portamento

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> portamento:  
> Carrying  
> (i.e. 1. generally, sliding in pitch from one note to another, usually pausing just above or below the final pitch, then sliding quickly to that pitch. If no pause is executed, then it is a basic glissando; or  
> 2\. in piano music, an articulation between legato and staccato, like portato)

“I’m Yuuri. Yuuri Katsuki.”

Viktor felt like his breath had been taken away. It was a strange feeling, like the first time he’d gone to a flower meadow in full bloom as a kid.

“What’s  _ your _ name?” the deer-- no,  _ Yuuri _ asked in return.

“My name is Viktor Nikiforov,” Viktor said as he pushed himself up to lie in an upright position instead, neatly folding up his horse legs underneath him. He was surprised to find that the pain in his side was much duller than he’d expected it to be. “It’s a little late, but thank you for saving me. And sorry for almost kicking you earlier when I woke up.”

Yuuri flushed a little at the sudden gratitude, waving a hand in dismissal. “I- It was nothing. Besides, if I hadn’t left you to begin with you might not have gotten hurt at… all…...” Yuuri’s voice slowly trailed off at the end, and he clapped a hand to his mouth, suddenly looking nervous. “I- I mean--” 

“What?” Viktor gave him a confused look, and Yuuri switched to running the hand through his hair instead.

“I- I mean!! It’s nothing! It was what should have been done.”

Viktor smiled. “Thank you. You’re a really good person.”

Yuuri smiled shyly in response to the other’s praise, his cheeks tinted pink.

“How long have I been out?” Viktor asked, grimacing as he felt stiffness in his legs.

“A few hours,” Yuuri replied, taking a few steps towards Viktor. Viktor’s eyes flicked to Yuuri’s hands, noticing that he was holding onto something in one of them. It was a small, wooden container that was uncapped, and from what Viktor could see it seemed like it had some kind of cream inside. It looked well used, the outside covered with small scratches. He tilted his head up at Yuuri’s face again when Yuuri spoke. “Could I continue treating your wound…? I’m almost done, and then I can bandage it up.”

Viktor nodded, and Yuuri settled down next to him, folding his spindly legs beneath him in much the same way Viktor was doing. Viktor shifted the arm blocking his wound and shivered a little when Yuuri’s hand ghosted over the injury. The cream that Yuuri spread onto his wound was nice and cool, and even though Viktor braced himself for it, no pain came when Yuuri’s hand made contact. Thankfully, the bullet had only left a nasty gash at his side, so it didn’t seem like the injury was something to be too worried over. He’d suffered worse before and survived. He healed fast, too, so he figured it would probably be fully healed within the next few days.

Viktor soon relaxed while quietly watching Yuuri work. Yuuri was taking his time, carefully rubbing the cream in, and the sensation was actually pleasant.

Viktor couldn’t help but notice how fair the deer’s skin was compared to his own, with Yuuri’s hand right against Viktor’s side. Although Viktor was one of the fairest in his tribe, having stayed in the sun for the majority of his life had made him considerably tan. In comparison, Yuuri was incredibly fair skinned, though not to the extent that it looked unhealthy. Viktor assumed it was probably due to him staying under the shade of the trees all the time.

It was pretty.

…  **_He’s_ ** _ really pretty _ , Viktor caught himself thinking, before shaking his head to get rid of the thought. This was hardly the time.

“Does it hurt?” Yuuri asked, and Viktor looked up to see worry in the other’s face.

“No, no! It actually feels great,” Viktor replied, flashing a smile. “I was just thinking about something, but it wasn’t anything important.” He nodded at the container in Yuuri’s hand, smoothly redirecting the conversation. “What is this stuff, anyway? It doesn’t hurt at all when you apply it. The cream we use at home always hurts.”

“Oh…” Yuuri glanced at the box in his hand, his brow creasing as he thought for a moment. “It doesn't have a name... At least none that I know of. I made it out of a kind of medicinal herb that grows a lot around here. It cleans really well and heals injuries really fast.”

Viktor’s eyes glittered. “Could you show it to me? The herb, I mean… And how you make this cream, too. It’d be great if I could bring some of this home.”

Yuuri agreed with a smile, returning to his work for a moment before his hand stopped again and his gaze was redirected at Viktor.

“... What are you doing in the forest?” he asked after a short pause, and Viktor blinked at him, a little surprised at the straightforward question.

Viktor scratched the back of his head while Yuuri looked at him expectantly. He thought for a little about where to begin before he spoke.

“Recently we’ve been having human troubles,” he finally said, sighing and looking down at his hands, tracing one of the lines on his palm. Viktor could feel Yuuri was staring at him, listening attentively. “They’ve been attacking our area of the grasslands more often, and taking more of our friends. They used to only come pick fights once every few years, but recently they’ve been coming every few months. We’ve still been winning, always have been, but they’re getting stronger. We need better ways to deal with them so I decided to leave. I want to find improvements to how we already do things so that we’ll have better ways to fight back... What we have now will clearly not be enough in the future.”

He grimaced at the thought of all the centaurs who had already been taken. A centaur’s fate once captured by humans was sealed to becoming a slave. It was incredibly hard to escape once brought to a human camp, and they had...  _ ways  _ to break a rebellious centaur in. Viktor shuddered at the thought, quickly pushing it out of his mind.

“I left in secret.” He looked up at Yuuri with a tiny smirk on his face, hiding his discomfort from earlier. “My mentor always goes on and on about how we need to stick to the traditional methods of fighting, but I thought differently as soon as I heard about the humans’ new weapon.” He gestured to his wound. “We’ll definitely be in trouble if the humans continue at this rate... So I left on my own! And I thought, what better place to go to first than the forests where my kind hasn’t entered in years? And so here I am.”

"... That’s awful,” Yuuri whispered, his voice sounding strained.

Viktor offered a smile. “It’s a thing that we’ve been dealing with for decades, maybe even centuries. We’re used to it.”

Yuuri frowned. “That doesn’t make it any less awful.”

Viktor’s heart thudded painfully in his chest as he fell silent, unsure of what else to say. His whole kind had taken this human thing as a routine thing, something that was normal. It was difficult to remember that this  _ wasn’t _ normal when everyone had been living and dealing with this reality for so long. He swallowed, a knot suddenly forming in his throat.

Meanwhile, Yuuri was wiping his fingers clean using a bit of cloth and carefully replacing the cap on the cream container. Viktor watched as he slipped it into a pouch strapped to his waist with a loose belt, pulling out a roll of bandages in exchange. 

“Raise your arms,” Yuuri said, and Viktor thought his voice was even quieter than before. Yuuri leaned in to wrap the bandage around Viktor when he complied. It didn’t take long before Yuuri was done and Viktor was admiring his handiwork.

“You’re good at this,” Viktor marvelled, his voice still sounding a little strained while he poked lightly at the bandage.

Yuuri gave a tiny smile at the praise. “It’s not that big of a deal.” He pulled away from Viktor, standing up and giving his legs a bit of a stretch. “I put your belongings over there at the side, in case you need to get something. And I have a bit of food and water over there on the table if you need them. I’ll have to prepare some small things for herb hunting if you feel good enough to go now…?” Yuuri tilted his head, looking a little unsure about the invitation.

Viktor could tell Yuuri was trying to lighten the mood a little, a grateful smile spreading across his face as he nodded. “I’m fine with going now. I need to stretch my legs after lying down for so long anyway.”

He rose to his feet, letting out a groan that made him sound like an old man, and he swore he caught a quiet chuckle from Yuuri. Horses weren’t quite designed for lying down for long periods of time. His legs already felt a little stiff. He lightly stomped life back into them as he took his first good look around the area, finally managing to pull his eyes away from looking at Yuuri as the other trotted away to gather up the supplies.

He was standing in a small shelter that had been built with several sturdy tree trunks that stood in a circle as a base, making the shelter circular in shape as well. The roof was made of several layers of large leaves, held together by strong vines that were knotted tightly to the trunks. It stood tall enough that there were still a few centimeters of extra headspace even while Viktor was standing straight.

The walls were additional vines woven so tightly together that it blocked the wind and trapped the warmth in, making the shelter nice and cosy. They hung from the ceiling, and the bottoms were weighed down with rocks to keep them from flapping around with the wind. The entrance was made similarly to the walls except it lacked any weights holding it down, making it closer to a curtain rather than a door.

The interior decoration was simple. The biggest piece of furniture was simply a large, flat rock that stood tall enough to reach his human half’s hip acting as a table. Viktor wondered for a moment how Yuuri had managed to get such a big rock all the way over here.

_ It couldn’t possibly have been at such a convenient spot, could it…? _ Viktor frowned a little as he walked up to it. He picked up a cup of water that stood on top of the table next to a bowl of berries. Feeling thirsty, he gulped the water down before placing the cup back down. He turned to the food next, contemplating it for a moment before deciding he still didn’t feel hungry, though he took a handful to save for later.

Once Viktor was done with his small break, he continued looking around. Various utensils and tools hung from the ceiling at the sides of the room, easily within reach but out of the way of unsuspecting heads. A glance at the spot he had been lying on and he realised that he had probably been lying on Yuuri’s bed. It was a little flattened now from Viktor lying on it, but Viktor could tell the pile of leaves were freshly laid down. The floor of the whole shelter was simply the forest ground, though due to the lack of light and the frequent stomping of hooves, the grass was mostly gone.

Satisfied with his observations, Viktor turned to where Yuuri stood. He was in front of another makeshift table close to a wall, though this one was made out of a tall tree stump rather than a rock. Various tools carved out of wood and stone hung from the ceiling and surrounded the cluttered table, and Viktor concluded it looked like a workshop of sorts.

As Viktor trotted up to the other centaur, Yuuri turned to look at him, closing the pouch at his waist.

“I was just about done,” Yuuri said quietly, giving a small smile.

“What were you preparing?” Viktor asked curiously, eyeing the pouch that seemed fuller than before.

Yuuri wordlessly opened the pouch, tilting it in Viktor’s direction. Inside, there was the same container and roll of bandages from earlier, with the addition of a roll of vines and what looked to be an incredibly small sickle.

“To tie the herbs together and to harvest them,” Yuuri explained before Viktor could ask. “They grow back if you leave enough of their base, so it’s better to just cut off the top leaves.”

Viktor nodded his understanding. “Will we have to go far?”

“A few minutes’ trot,” Yuuri replied, making his way to the stone table to grab some berries before heading for the entrance. “A little longer since we’ll be going at a slower pace.”

Viktor nodded again, going over to his supplies and strapping his bow and arrows to his back, along with his sword.  _ Just in case. _ He put the handful of berries he’d taken into a little pocket on his quiver.

“Well then! Time for a little field trip together!” Viktor announced when he was ready, a little excited to finally have someone to guide him through the woods when he’d just been wandering around aimlessly just a little while before. “Lead the way!”

Yuuri blinked at the sudden outburst before chuckling and nodding.

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small chapter! I don't really have anything else to say hahaha  
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
